The Baltic region is best known for the Hanseatic League, a powerful trade league of cities and city-states that dominated the political environment of Northern Europe through to the end of the Middle Ages. Their influence can be felt across Northern Europe, but today it is most visible in the brick cityscapes of Lübeck, Wismar, and Stralsund. As the League declined, it was supplanted by new powers, the Dukes of Mecklenburg and Pomerania.
